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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23768956">Masks</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/acanthusaster/pseuds/acanthusaster'>acanthusaster</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Original Work</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Body Horror, Character Death, Horror, Masks, Original Character(s), Original Fiction, Original Universe, Psychological Horror, junji ito inspo</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-04-21</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-04-21</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-02 18:53:11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Graphic Depictions Of Violence</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,285</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23768956</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/acanthusaster/pseuds/acanthusaster</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>The lives of an entire town are turned around..</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Masks</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Please note that this story contains heavy amounts of body gore/horror and compulsion horror, if you are uncomfortable by this, please close the fic.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Tik tok tik...<br/>
Class felt as though it was stretching  time, pulling it like taffy so that it seemed like an eternity. When the class was finally over with, the bell to let us out sounding through the classrooms and halls, I finally was able to stand up and get out of the slowly cracking plastic chair. My bones ached as though I were an old man.<br/>
  I let a small sigh leave my lips as my knees popped upon standing, happy to finally be able to move freely again after so long in the seat. I gathered my things, stuffing them into my backpack before slinging it onto my shoulder. out to the halls, following other students, out the front doors of the school and onto the pathways leading down to the sidewalk. The day was clear, barely a single cloud riding in the sky, autumn leaves gently falling from the trees and laying  on the ground to dry and brown.<br/>
  “Hey, Ross, wait up!” I turned around, a smile painting itself across my face, watching as a slightly shorter girl came running up to me, thick and tight curls as dark as the night sky bouncing as she ran up. The sun hit her deep skin softly, caressing her features and making her look more amazing then ever.<br/>
  “Sorry about that, Sallie, I didn’t mean to get so far ahead of you,” I sympathized, offering a small smile as an apology to her, only causing her to shake her head, curls flinging around her as a warm smile crossed her lips.<br/>
  “Don’t worry about it, I had to help Mr. Mccoy clean up the lab room anyway.” She said sweetly, brushing it off regardless of our agreement to wait up for each other so we could walk home together.  With a small nod of my head, we started to walk in a comfortable silence together, listening as the leaves crunched under our feet, feeling the soft chill kiss our cheeks with a breeze that blew through our town. Before long, I felt her slide her hand into my own, lacing our fingers together as my smile grew and a blush formed on my cheeks. I now wish I had savored that feeling, the feeling of happiness and love, of life, when I had it. </p>
<p>  When in my small, almost cramped studio apartment, which was all I could afford at the time, she and I dropped our bags by the door along with our shoes before crossing the room. I went to the kitchen while she went to my fold out couch, making it into a bed and laying down. The bed mode wasn’t very long, so her feet dangling off the end of the mattress due to her height.<br/>
  “Are you hungry?” I asked, moving around the kitchen to make something for us. Out of the corner of my eyes I saw her nod distractedly, and I started to make her something to eat as well. With my back turned, I heard her flick on the tv and start flipping through the channels.<br/>
  “No… No.... Nope, ugh,” she groaned, “There’s nothing good on today.” Sallie whined. It made me smile a bit, happy that her daily complaining of nothing being on was still there.<br/>
After a few minutes of making sandwiches for us, I turned around and walked to the bed, handing her the plate I made for her and sitting down. As we channel surfed and talked about random happenings from school, mostly gossip from her friends, or what gross thing the football team happened to do this week. She landed on the news, a few minutes later. At the bottom of the screen, a banner flashed ‘Breaking News’ while the lady on the screen spoke.<br/>
  “All across the county reports are coming in of people wearing masks and causing a dangerous amount of damage to both people and property. Local governments are advising that people stay indoors and remain as cal-”<br/>
  The reporter was cut off, screams coming from all around the area she was in. Her head whipped around to find the source. The camera followed her line of sight, landing on a tall, bulky man, a shorter woman and a child. The young boy was dropped in, who I assumed, was his mother’s arms, blood dripping down his chest and arms. The mother was crying through her mask, mesh covering her eyes but I could tell it was wet. Her husband’s hands were bloody, as well were hers. She was the main source of the blood curdling screams.<br/>
  It took me a moment to realize that Sallie had my arm in a death grip. I could feel the fear coming from her, the shaking of her hands on my arm caused me to panic a bit, she was almost never like this. So panicked, normally that was me who was scared beyond belief. But now, she shook with fear in my arms, her face as pale as a ghost who just learned they were dead.<br/>
  The man on the tv was screaming, gripping at his face so hard his already pale knuckles went completely white, as if there was no blood in his body anymore. I could feel my eyes widen, the image was horrifying, his face and body were twisting, stretching and contorting into ways that I never could have  imagined would be possible.<br/>
  Streams of blood dripped down his cheeks, climbing down from his eyes, dropping onto the ground as he slowly looked up from the ground. He looked heartbroken, or as heartbroken a man could look while wearing a full face mask, only allowing his eyes be visible.<br/>
  “I killed him,” he croaked. The voice that left him sounded like it was made using autotune, robotic in nature and breaking every other line. “My son, my poor boy…” It was then that I could tell that he smiled, the corners of his eyes scrunching through the masks eye holes.<br/>
  “But he didn't want to listen to papa and put on the mask.”<br/>
  I felt tears prick my eyes as I realized the man had none., his skin seemed to warp around the mask, or the mask seemed to sink into his skin, I couldn't tell which over the screen and I didn’t think I wanted to know the details. Sallie went to turn the tv off, her thumb hovering over the button to turn it off, but stopped short. I looked over at her, fear clicking in my mind as I saw her eyes looking almost glazed over, her normally bright green eyes looking so foggy and glass like that I barely recognized them.<br/>
  “Sallie..?” I asked gently, desperately pawing at her hand to try and   get her  grip off my arm. She wouldn’t budge though, and I finally looked at the tv, seeing a mask there in the  camera. Nobody was wearing it, but it was there, seeming to stare at us with unblinking eyes. It was a gentle blue in color, with gold and silver details dancing across the elegant curves of the plastic. If a person were to wear it, it would only cover the top part of their face, resting on the bridge of  the wearer’s nose.<br/>
  “Sallie, what is it?” She didn’t answer me. Simply staring at the mask. She laughed, a low, hearty giggle coming up from her soul and spilling out like a thick oil.<br/>
She stood up, finally letting go of my arm. I noticed later the skin had purpled with a bruise. Before I could even move to stop her, she ran out of the door, her speed was inhuman, legs moving so fast that they blurred in my vision.. I jumped up, following her as rapidly  as I could, screaming out to her to come back to the house.. She raced out of the complex, racing down the streets.<br/>
  All around me they floated, staring at us so intensely it felt like there were holes being burned in my skin. Some were full faced, some half faced. Each was different from the other, and from the looks of it, no two masks were the same design or color. Some were shades and hue of all red, blue, sea blues and greens. Flowers from summer covered one mask, another had blood, fresh, already dripping down from the open eyes and mouth holes.<br/>
  My legs bound down the street, trying desperately to keep up with her inhuman speed. Where had that come from? Why was she running so much? I couldn’t figure out anything that was happening in the moments I was running. My mind felt so numbingly blank that I couldn’t even tell if my legs were moving.<br/>
  Eventually, we made it to where the news had been shot, and the sight made me gag as I attempted to catch my breath. The news lady’s face was covered in a mask, the plastic clung, into her skin. The edges  were already dripping with red, and it had this… deranged smile carved into the front. It gave off such an uncomfortable vibe that I nearly cried at the sight. My head whipped around to face Sallie, my heart stopping as I watched her put the dusty blue mask on, laughing as she did.<br/>
  “Mine,” she started, “its mine, it was made for me!” Sallie let out a scream as deep, jagged marks, started to run along her skin. A dark golden and silver liquid dripped down from the cuts, flowing through them at a rapid rate, as if it had replaced her blood. Her face didn’t contort the way the news lady’s had, or the way the father’s had, but her arms became that soft, beautiful, blue to match the mask, the color being pigmented and bright from her  fingertips to her elbows before it faded back into her natural, deep skin tone.<br/>
  When she looked at me, her eyes were unnaturally large in size. They weren’t the same dark emerald eyes I always loved, that I always stared into and saw stars. These eyes were completely white, blank of any emotion. It sent such a shiver down my spine that it rattled my bones and shook me to the core.<br/>
  Slowly, I started to back away from away from her, but for every step back I took, she took one towards me. The laughs that left her were unsettlingly beautiful, like a haunting song from a ghost. I tired to speak, tried to beg her to stop, but I knew it would be in vain, no matter what I said.<br/>
  I heard a russell from next to me, I slowly moved my head to look at the news reporter. The first thing I noticed was her elongated limbs. Soaked in blood and tearing bits of flesh stretching to their near limit. Her arms and legs looked much the same. Her exposed bones were stained with blood. She didn’t look human anymore.  .<br/>
  They stalked toward me, the small family, the news reporter, Sallie, seeming to be unable to run like Sallie had before, so I ran. There was no hesitation, no second thought in my mind as my legs picked up the pace, sprinting faster than I ever had before. In my mind, the only important thing in my mind was surviving this hell.<br/>
  I could hear them following me, all the masked people, their slow shuffles while dragging their feet along the cracking black pavement of the street.  They were more like zombies now, maybe demons, even. Completely mindless, only able to see death in their wake.  I did everything I could, look at the ground, the trees, the store front windows racing past me as I ran, anywhere but those cursed masks that have brought this living nightmare to us.  I knew if I did look at any of them, there was a chance I could end up like them, and I would have been damned if I let that happen.<br/>
  I ran for five minutes? Ten? I lost count, I wondered if I have even kept count to start with. All I remember doing was running. I didn’t care where I was going, just that I was still alive.  No matter which alley I turned down, which store I went into they were waiting for me. Ten of them at the most crowding around me to try and force a mask onto my unwilling face. None of them seemed to fit however, and the masked husks got bored of me.<br/>
  Each mask I looked at seemed wrong, i wasn’t sure how but it felt like the ones that always caught my eye were made for someone else.<br/>
  Eventually, I found a place they couldn’t get into. A store with so many locks on the doors and windows only someone in their right mind could open. But they could still see into the widows. And one of them is holding a mask for me. As I write this now, I know that this mask is mine. I can feel the ache of it in my bones, my body wanting so badly for me to get to the mask and wear it.<br/>
  It is dark, simmering and beautiful, something that looks so much like how I remember her eyes looking now. I can see it now, they found it, the one for me. I can hear them breaking the glass from around me, shattering it in so many pieces that anyone would be a fool to walk in here, even with shoes. </p>
<p> I have to put it on. I need to. I can hear it whispering to me as they get closer. </p>
<p> It’s mine. I need it.</p>
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